1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a data converter and a terminal, and more particularly, to a terminal and a converter for converting data, which are attached to an E mail (electronic mail) routed to the terminal, into data in a format which can be processed by the terminal.
2. Description of the Background Art
As the Internet techniques have progressed in recent years, the environment in which an E mail can be transmitted and received, or the environment in which WWW (World Wide Web) can be accessed have been prepared in offices, homes, and so forth. A terminal which is represented by a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as PC) is used for the transmission and receiving of the E mail and the access to the WWW.
As high-density packaging technology and wireless communication technology have progressed, a portable terminal which is represented by a notebook-sized PC and a personal digital assistant has spread. If a user uses the portable terminal, the user can transmit or receive an E mail or refers to information stored in the WWW through a subscriber line even from the place where he or she has gone. The portable terminal is connected to a network on the basis of a protocol which is represented by PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) , and accesses a mail server or the WWW through the network, to acquire the E mail or the information.
In the present specification, the mail server means an equipment contained in the network for delivering the E mail to the terminal or the portable terminal. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) or POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) are generally used for transmission or receiving of the E mail between the mail server and the terminal or the portable terminal. That is, examples of the mail server include one for processing the E mail transmitted from the terminal or the portable terminal in accordance with the SMTP (a so-called SMTP server) and one for processing the E mail received by the terminal or the portable terminal in accordance with the POP3 (a so-called POP server). The SMTP server and the POP server may, in some cases, be independent equipments. However, the same equipment may, in some cases, combine the functions of the SMTP server and the POP server. Whether or not the SMTP server and the POP server are independent of each other is not directly related to the present invention. In the specification, however, the mail server shall have the functions of both the SMTP server and the POP server for convenience.
When the terminal acquires the E mail from the mail server, the name of the mail server or an IP address assigned by the mail server, and a user ID and a password for accessing the mail server are required. When the terminal transmits the E mail to the mail server, a message ID is assigned to the E mail. The message ID may, in some cases, be used for specifying whether the E mail has already been acquired or has not been acquired yet between the terminal and the mail server because it uniquely specifies the E mail.
At the beginning, only a character in a text format has been transmitted or received as data by the E mail. However, data other than the character in the text format has been generally attached to the E mail using MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) in recent years. Attached to the E mail is data generated by various types of application software which are represented by image processing, document processing, or spreadsheet or data generated in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) as an example.
In order to realize the above-mentioned function of the E mail, software referred to as a mailer is installed in the terminal or the portable terminal. The installed mailer performs processing which is represented by transmission or receiving, display, editing, or arrangement of the E mail in accordance with an instruction from the user. Almost all mailers for the terminal correspond to MIME, and can process the E mail to which data is attached. In the terminal, when the data attached to the E mail is selected by the user, the application software which is related to the attached data is started, to display the attached data. Further, the application software of the document processing may, in some cases, have the function of not displaying the attached data as it is but analyzing the attached data, and then converting the analyzed attached data into data in a text format and displaying the data in the text format.
An example of a device constituting the WWW is a Web server. The Web server gets a request from the terminal or the portable terminal, and retrieves document data designated by the request from an internal storage area. Thereafter, the Web server transmits the retrieved document data to the terminal or the portable terminal which has issued the request through the WWW. HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is used as a transfer protocol between the terminal or the portable terminal and the Web server. The document data which is handled by the terminal or the portable terminal and the Web server is typically generated in HTML. Uniqueness in the WWW of the document data is maintained. The uniqueness is realized by a character representing an address referred to as URL (Uniform Resource Locator). URL may, in some cases, be referred to as a URL address, an address, and an Internet address. URL is constituted by portions called a scheme, a host, a port, a path, a parameter, a query, and a fragment, as illustrated as an example in FIG. 14.
The Web server may, in some cases, have the function of executing a computer program referred to as CGI (Common Gateway Interface). In many cases, CGI is a script described in a language represented by Perl or typically a computer program in an execute format described in a C language. CGI can be thus constituted by a script or a program. The Web server performs, when it can execute CGI, processing conforming to the program referred to as CGI on the basis of information transmitted from the terminal or the portable terminal, to transmit document data representing the results of the processing to the terminal which has transmitted the information.
The following are examples of a method of forwarding information required to execute CGI (i.e., a factor) from the terminal or the portable terminal:
(1) A method of the terminal setting the factor in the query included in URL assigned to CGI, and transmitting the factor to the Web server (corresponding to the use of a request method referred to as GET in the HTTP).
(2) A method of the terminal setting the factor in an entity body (contents displayed by the terminal), and transmitting URL assigned to CGI to the Web server (corresponding to the use of a request method referred to as POST in the HTTP).
Judgement as to which of the above-mentioned methods (1) and (2) should be employed by the Web server depends on the description of CGI.
The Web server starts, when URL assigned to CGI is designated by the factor transmitted by the terminal using the method (1) or (2), the designated CGI. The Web server executes CGI in accordance with the information transmitted from the terminal. The Web server executes CGI, to retrieve a data base previously holding data, for example, and transmit to the terminal document data, generated in HTML, representing the results of the retrieval.
Application software referred to as a user agent or a browser is installed in the terminal. The application software requests the Web server to transmit a Web page, and interrupts and displays the Web page transmitted from the Web server. Such application software is hereinafter merely referred to as a browser.
The browser has various functions. The typical functions include:
(1) The function of analyzing the document data generated in HTML and an image which are transmitted from the Web server, displaying the data and the image on a display of the terminal, and voice-outputting the data and the image when required.
(2) The function of requiring, when the user of the terminal selects Hot Spot embedded in the document data created in HTML or enters URL, the Web server to transmit the specified document data created in HTML.
(3) The function of transmitting, when the user enters information into a field embedded in the document data created in HTML, the entered information to the Web server.
Some of the recent mailers have the function of automatically extracting URL described in the E mail, and underlining or coloring the extracted URL, to inform the user of URL. In the terminal, when the user selects URL in the E mail displayed by the mailer, the browser is automatically started. The browser acquires from the Web server the document data created in HTML which is specified by the selected URL, and displays the acquired document data. The browser thus realizes good accessibility to the WWW in cooperation with the mailer.
As described in the foregoing, the transmission or receiving of the E mail has been convenient for the user, so that data can be attached to the E mail. However, a terminal on the transmission side may, in some cases, be unconscious of the application software installed in the terminal on the receiving side. That is, the terminal on the transmission side may, in some cases, attach to the E mail data generated by application software which the terminal on the receiving side does not have. In such a case, the terminal on the receiving side cannot correctly reproduce the attached data.
As described in the foregoing, the mailer and the browser have steadily increased in function year by year, so that they have been conveniently used. However, the portable terminal is made small in size and lightweight, low in power consumption, or low in cost depending on its portability. In many cases, the processing capabilities of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the memory capacity in the portable terminal are smaller than those in the normal terminal. Consequently, the portable terminal cannot desire more highly functional processing than the terminal even if it has the functions of the mailer and the browser. Therefore, the data attached to the E mail cannot be displayed and reproduced.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a data converter or a terminal capable of correctly displaying data attached to an E mail on the receiving side.
The present invention attains the above-mentioned objects by the following aspects.
A first aspect of the present invention is directed to a data converter contained in a network capable of transmitting and receiving an E mail between a terminal and a mail server for converting data attached to the E mail into data in another format, comprising:
a receiving portion for receiving mail acquiring information which the terminal uses to acquire the E mail from the mail server;
an acquisition portion for acquiring the E mail from the mail server on the basis of the mail acquiring information received by the receiving portion;
a conversion portion for converting the format of the data attached to the E mail acquired by the acquisition portion into another format which can be displayed by the terminal; and
a transmission portion for transmitting to the terminal the data converted by the conversion portion.
The data converter according to the first aspect converts the data attached to the E mail into data in another format which can be displayed by the terminal, and transmits the converted data. Even if data which cannot be correctly displayed is attached to the E mail, therefore, the terminal can receive from the data converter data in a format which can be displayed by itself. The data converter is thus contained in the network, so that the terminal can correctly display the attached data.
A second aspect is dependent on the first aspect, wherein that
the conversion portion further converts the format(s) of all data attached to the E mail acquired by the acquisition portion, and generates data representing an index which is related to the data converted by the conversion portion, and
the transmission portion transmits each of the data converted by the conversion portion and the generated data representing the index.
According to the second aspect, the data converter collectively converts all the data attached to the E mail, and generates the data representing the index which is related to the converted data. The data converter further transmits to the terminal the converted data and the data representing the index, so that the terminal can simultaneously acquire the data attached to the E mail and further acquire the data representing the index from the data converter. Consequently, a user of the terminal can efficiently refer to the plurality of data, which have already been converted, simultaneously transmitted utilizing the index.
A third or fourth aspect is dependent on the first or second aspect, wherein that
the transmission portion transmits the data converted by the conversion portion as an E mail to the terminal.
According to the third or fourth aspect, the data converter transmits the data converted by the conversion portion to the terminal with the data attached to the E mail. The terminal can acquire from the mail server the data converted by the data converter.
A fifth aspect is directed to a terminal, which is contained in a network with a mail server and a data converter, for acquiring an E mail from the mail server, comprising:
a mail acquisition portion for acquiring the E mail from the mail server on the basis of previously held mail acquiring information;
an issue portion for analyzing the E mail acquired by the mail acquisition portion and issuing an alternate URL including data specifying information for specifying data attached to the E mail and the mail acquiring information as required;
a transmission/instruction portion for transmitting the alternate URL issued by the issue portion and instructing the data converter to convert the format of data specified by the alternate URL into a predetermined data format; and
a display portion for receiving the data converted by the data converter and displaying the received data.
The terminal according to the fifth aspect issues the alternate URL as required, and transmits the alternate URL to the data converter. The data converter acquires the E mail specified by the alternate URL from the mail server using the mail acquiring information from the terminal. That is, the data converter acquires the E mail in place of the terminal. The data converter converts the format of the data attached to the acquired E mail into a predetermined format. The terminal displays the data in the predetermined format. Even if data which cannot be correctly displayed is attached to the E mail, therefore, the terminal can receive from the data converter data in a format which can be displayed by itself and display the received data.
A sixth aspect is dependent on the fifth aspect, wherein that
the issue portion issues the alternate URL only to the data which can be converted by the data converter out of the data attached to the E mail acquired by the mail acquisition portion.
According to the sixth aspect, the issue portion issues the alternate URL only to the data which can be converted by the data converter, and does not issue the alternate URL to the data which cannot be converted by the data converter. Consequently, no unnecessary alternate URL is issued.
A seventh or eighth aspect is dependent to the fifth or sixth aspects, further comprising
a delete portion for deleting the attached data specified by the alternate URL issued by the issue portion.
When the alternate URL is issued, the attached data to which the alternate URL has been issued is unnecessary for the terminal. According to the seventh or eighth aspect, the unnecessary attached data is deleted, so that a storage area of the terminal can be effectively utilized.
Ninth to twelfth aspects are dependent on the fifth to eighth aspects, wherein that
the issue portion issues the alternate URL further including an address assigned to the E mail, and
the transmission/instruction portion transmits the alternate URL issued by the issue portion, converts the format of the data specified by the alternate URL into a predetermined data format, and instructs the data converter to transmit the E mail to which the converted data is attached.
According to the ninth to twelfth aspects, the terminal can acquire from the mail server the data converted by the data converter.
Thirteenth to twentieth aspects are dependent on the fifth to twelfth aspects, wherein that
the issue portion includes temporary mail acquiring information in the alternate URL.
The mail acquiring information is generally information which is high in secrecy to the user of the terminal and is not desired to be known by the others. According to the thirteenth to twentieth aspects, the terminal causes the mail server to issue temporary mail acquiring information and includes the issued temporary mail acquiring information in the alternate URL. Consequently, the secrecy of the original mail acquiring information can be ensured.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.